Embry-Riddle Graduates
First Ph.D. Students in Engineering Physics (Source: ERAU)
When 535 Embry-Riddle students graduate in Daytona Beach, Florida, and
Prescott, Arizona, ceremonies this month, the university will reach a
proud milestone – eight of those students will be the university’s
first-ever Ph.D. graduates. Three earned a Ph.D. in Engineering
Physics, including work on theoretical physics with practical
engineering and problem-solving with a focus on space. (12/5)

Academia and
Entrepreneurial Space Companies Seek Closer Ties (Source:
Space News)
Early stage space companies and universities, which have tended to
operate in separate orbits, should find ways to work more closely
together to take advantage of innovations each side can offer,
representatives of both communities recommended recently.

“When we talk about connections and relations between academia and
industry, especially engineering-oriented industries, the conversations
tend to focus around workforce training,” said Ariel Anbar, professor
in the School of Earth and Space Exploration and the Department of
Chemistry and Biochemistry at Arizona State University, during an event
titled “Space Exploration: How and Why?” organized by the university
and held here Nov. 15. Click here.
(12/5)

Commercial Space Race
Revolutionizing Business Off Planet Earth (Source:
Space.com)
Space offers plenty of business opportunities, at least in the eyes of
the space enthusiasts coming to the International Space Commerce 2013
Summit in London, where entrepreneurs, investors and state-sponsored
space organizations gathered to discuss ways of making space
exploration profitable. Click here.
(12/5)

Are the Days of NASA's
Science Flagship Missions Over? (Source: Space Policy
Online)
NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden had a tough message for the space
science community today – forget about flagship missions, they’re not
affordable these days. At the very same time on Capitol Hill, however,
the chairman of one of NASA’s key committees was expressing enthusiasm
about a mission to Europa – unquestionably a flagship mission. The
disconnect could not be more stark.

Flagship missions are NASA’s most expensive (over $1 billion) and risky
space science missions, but offer exceptional scientific payoff. In a
“lessons learned” briefing on one of NASA’s most recent flagship
missions – the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) with its Curiosity rover -
noted that it was two years late and significantly over budget.

Bolden’s message to the NAC Science Committee was unambiguous: “We have
to stop thinking about … flagship missions. … The budget doesn’t
support that.” Bolden went on to explain that he and NASA Chief
Scientist Ellen Stofan have talked about “the importance of cadence,”
flying “more, less expensive types of missions.” (12/4)

Hawaii's PISCES Signs
MOUs with Honeybee Robotics, Made in Space (Source:
Parabolic Arc)
The Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems (PISCES)
has expanded its list of Memoranda of Understanding (MOU’s) to eleven,
after officially partnering with Honeybee Robotics and Made In Space.
PISCES will partner with the companies on the Center’s 3D laser
printing projects. The signing took place at the PISCES Board of
Director’s meeting on October 6th in Honolulu – the day before the
Hawaii Aerospace Summit. (12/5)

California's Steve Knight
Weighs Run for Congress (Source: Parabolic Arc)
California State Sen. Steve Knight (R-Palmdale), a key supporter of
commercial space, says he will run for Congress next year in the 25th
District should the current office holder, Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon
(R-Santa Clarita), decides to retire. McKeon, 75, has not announced his
plans, but there is widespread speculation in political circles that he
will elect to step down next year rather than seek another two-year
term.

The state senator, whose father William J. “Pete” Knight flew the X-15
rocket plane, has been a key backer of commercial space measures in the
California Legislature. He introduced a limited liability bill designed
to protect commercial space providers from passenger lawsuits that was
approved with revisions. He also has introduced several other
commercial space bills now being considered by legislators.

If elected, Knight would join Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) as
another supporter of commercial space in the House of Representatives.
McCarthy, who is the House Majority Whip, represents the adjacent 23rd
District, which encompasses the northern part of the Antelope Valley.
The district includes the Mojave Air and Space Port, NASA Dryden, and
Edwards Air Force Base. Both Knight and McCarthy have worked with
Mojave Air and Space Port CEO and General Manager Stu Witt on measures
to advance commercial space activities. (12/4)

Future Astronauts Face
Changing Career Landscape (Source: Kansas City InfoZine)
With all of NASA’s recent unmanned launches, kids are looking to new
space events for inspiration. “What inspired me was the Apollo program
… now we have a whole new generation of young people saying
SpaceShipOne,” Steve Isakowitz, president of Virgin Galactic, said.

If Virgin's initial flights go well, there could soon be an industry
for commercial space flight pilots, giving kids a new career option for
getting into space. Pilots of these flights may face less competition
and more lax standards than at NASA. The federal space agency’s
standards include having a bachelor's degree, at least 1,000 pilot
hours and passing a NASA space physical (which requires a height
between 5-feet-2-inches and 6-feet-3-inches). (12/5)

Florida Space Industry to
Visit Capitol on March 12 (Source: Florida Space Day)
Representatives from Florida’s aerospace industry will visit
Tallahassee on March 12, 2014, to participate in Florida Space Day and
share with legislators the opportunities the industry brings to Florida
and the nation’s space program. "Aerospace means business and that
translates into high tech, high paying jobs for Florida,” said Patty
Stratton, chair of Florida Space Day 2014. “The decisions made in both
Tallahassee and Washington D.C. in regard to the space program will
greatly affect the state.”

Florida has the third largest space industry in the nation. “It’s
imperative that Florida’s legislators, local officials and the business
community continue to work together to position the state to capture
new opportunities as this industry transitions,” said Stratton.

This year’s event is critical, as the state’s space industry continues
to expand and change to face the dynamic international marketplace.
During Space Day, industry leaders and other aerospace supporters will
meet with House and Senate members, as well as the Governor, to discuss
the state’s $8 billion space industry, and determine the best
strategies for leveraging these markets for Florida’s benefit in the
years ahead. (12/5)

FSDC Supports Space Day
in Tallahassee (Source: FSDC)
The Florida Space Development Council (FSDC) is involved in planning
and implementation of Space Day, which is scheduled for March 12 in
Tallahassee, at the start of the state's annual Legislative Session. As
it did during the 2013 Legislative Session, FSDC will track the status
of space-related policy and funding initiatives as they work their way
through the legislative process. Regular updates will be distributed by
FSDC until the end of the session. The preliminary "advocacy agenda" is
posted here.
(And here's
a copy of the final 2013 legislative summary.) (12/5)

UCF's Race to Space
(Source: UCF)
Ruben Nunez was featured as an alumni spotlight earlier this year, and
explained that his company, Earthrise Space, formed Omega Envoy, one of
22 teams competing to be the first to land a robot on the surface of
the moon, hoping to win $30 million in Google’s Lunar X PRIZE
competition. Since then, Omega Envoy (made up of numerous UCF alumni
and students) has been featured in the planetarium dome show “Back to
the Moon for Good,” which is being shown in 80 locations in 19
countries. Nunez and his team have also been awarded the Congressional
Rising Star in Technology, in recognition of their success and benefit
to the regional technology community. (12/5)

Congress Nearing its
Deadline to Pass Defense Budget (Source: Military.com)
Congress is nearing its deadline to pass the 2014 National Defense
Authorization Act to fund the Defense Department next year. The
department has asked for a base budget of $527 billion and another $79
billion for the war in Afghanistan. The request does not take into
account the automatic sequestration budget cuts that would shave
another $52 billion from the budget after Jan. 1. The House passed the
budget, but amendments have bogged the measure down in the Senate.
(12/4)

Budget Deal Includes Some
Relief for Pentagon, Source Says (Source: Defense News)
The U.S. bicameral budget committee is nearing a deal, according to a
defense lobbyist. The deal would include "$85 billion of cuts and
revenues," the lobbyist said. The deal includes relief for the Pentagon
with “appropriations bills for two years that give us stability and
some sequester relief." (12/4)

China’s Space Launches
Send People Below Running for Cover (Source: ABC News)
A day after China trumpeted the successful launch of its first-ever
robotic lunar rover, state media reported a sobering footnote: more
than 180,000 residents of southwestern Sichuan and southern Hunan
provinces were evacuated to keep them from being hit by falling debris.
No casualties were reported, but two farmhouses in Hunan were damaged.

The “fallout” from this latest space mission is another example of a
massive and prestigious state-funded project whose risks to local
populations are often overlooked. Yang and Yuan’s village is located in
Suining County, Hunan province. Rocket debris often rains down from the
sky on this area. A county official told local media that since 1990,
the villagers have been evacuated ahead of 30 rocket launches from the
Xichang Satellite Launch Center. (12/5)

Let the Space Price War
Begin (Source: Bloomberg)
Eleven years in, the grand entrepreneurial experiment called SpaceX
still has to prove itself. On Tuesday evening it reached a major
milestone, sending a satellite for paying customer SES into
geostationary orbit. SpaceX has flown its Falcon 9 rocket seven times
and shown that it can reach orbit, dock with the International Space
Station, and bring cargo home. Now it’s put a satellite 22,236 miles
above the earth’s surface for a fraction of the going price.

This latest launch is bad news for Russia, Europe, Boeing (BA), and
Lockheed Martin (LMT). SES paid $55 million to SpaceX for the launch;
rivals typically charge $100 million to $200 million. SpaceX has a
backlog of about $4 billion worth of launches, many for commercial
customers that it can now begin to serve. One more successful flight
should open the way for the company to handle some of the military work
that has gone to Boeing and Lockheed through their joint venture,
United Launch Alliance.

We’ll really get a sense of SpaceX’s abilities over the next year. The
company plans to launch rockets at a much more ferocious clip, to
refine their reusability and to prepare for sending humans to the
International Space Station. You can also expect to see SpaceX
tormented by politicians with ties to existing launch contractors and
military suppliers. May we live in interesting times. (12/5)

Overhaul Pending in
Russian Space Sector (Source: Itar-Tass)
Russia appears to have learnt some lessons from its failures in outer
space and started a fundamental reform of the related industry, now in
an acute crisis. After the recent reshuffle President Vladimir Putin
signed a decree to set up a United Rocket and Space Corporation (URSC).

The reform splits the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) into two — an
agency responsible for the state space policy and a corporation that
will be comprised of most of the sector’s manufacturing companies.
Roscosmos will be preserved with its research institutes and ground
infrastructures. The state-run URSC will take over the production of
rocket and space equipment, while the state contract, coordination and
operation will still be Roscosmos’ domain.

Putin has approved the plan proposed by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry
Rogozin, who is in charge of the military-industrial complex issues.
The URSC is being established on the basis of the Research Institute
for Space Instrument Engineering, which, Rogozin said, had sufficient
resources to include rocket and space industry’s stocks. (12/5)

How India’s Cryogenic
Program Was Wrecked (Source: Russia & India Report)
India was all set to master Russian cryogenic rocket technology when
the United States – in cahoots with its moles in the Indian
Intelligence Bureau – set in motion a series of events that implicated
India’s leading space scientists on cooked-up charges. To understand
the extent of damage caused to India’s space program because of the
ISRO spy case, one has to first look at how close India was to
mastering cryogenic rocket technology.

Cryogenic rocket technology involves the use of super-cooled liquid
fuels to produce massive amounts of thrust in order to lift heavy
payloads into space. It will be at the heart of India's GSLV rocket,
which will carry future Indian astronauts to the moon. Without a
reliable GSLV India will continue to pay heavy launch fees to foreign
space agencies. Because it takes several hours to fuel up a cryogenic
rocket, such a rocket cannot be used as a ballistic missile.

This leads to two questions. One, if the United States is really
concerned about India developing long-range ballistic missiles, then
shouldn’t it try and stop the guys at the Defence Research &
Development Organization, which makes the Agni missiles? Secondly, why
would the United States want to delay the development of India’s heavy
lift commercial rockets? India is the only developing country with
heavy lift ambitions and its ultra-low cost model could one day put the
likes of NASA out of business. (12/5)

Lawmakers Want NASA to
Keep Looking for Life in Space (Source: Houston Chronicle)
Scientists are stepping up the search for “tenacious” forms of
primitive life on planets orbiting distant stars, with promising
technologies that could begin assessing 3,500 candidate planets within
five to ten years, three astrobiology experts told Congress Wednesday.

Rep. Lamar Smith, R-TX, chairman of the House Committee on Science,
Space and Technology, called the prospect “inspiring,” adding that
confirmation of distant life would transform mankind’s understanding of
life on earth and human beings’ place in the universe. The scientists
and lawmakers from both parties readily agreed that despite the budget
squeeze, NASA needs more money to pursue the pioneering research, and
national leaders need to build stronger public support for the spending.

The best chance of spying signs of life would be a direct imaging
mission that relies on a next generation, space-based telescope and a
so-called “star shade” that would screen out stars’ light to enable the
telescope to get a better shot of orbiting planets, said Sara Seager of
MIT. (12/4)

Ice on Ceres: 'An
Interesting Paradox' (Source: Astrobiology)
Orbiting in the asteroid belt, a little more than three times as far
from the Sun as Earth, Ceres is thought to contain an icy mantle that
makes up approximately a third of its mass. "Ceres is very different
and very exciting in a lot of ways, totally different from any place
that we've been," Britney Schmidt said. "It may be the only primarily
icy planet that's out there, at least within reach." (12/5)

Turkey Keen on Space
Cooperation with China (Source: Space Daily)
Turkey is keen on space cooperation with China, especially in lunar
missions and outer space exploration, scientists said here on Wednesday
after China's launching of lunar probe Chang'e-3. The scientists
watched the launching of Long March-3B rocket, which carried Chang'e-3
lunar probe and Yutu lunar rover, on Monday. The scientist said the
areas that Turkey and China should expand cooperation are satellite
projects, lunar mission projects and exploration of the outer space.
(12/5)

China's Most Moon-Like
Place (Source: Space Daily)
The desert of fine, soft sand ripples with low dunes and not a plant is
in sight. Simmering under a ceaseless noonday sun, the Kumtag desert
descends through chill to extreme frigidity as night falls. This is the
most moon-like place in China. It was here in northwest China on the
boundary of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Gansu Province that
Chinese scientists built the testing ground for moon rover Yutu (Jade
Rabbit). (12/5)

Satellite Cooling System
Breakthrough Developed by Lockheed Martin (Source: Space
Fellowship)
Scientists and engineers at the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology
Center (ATC) have developed the lightest cryocooler, (satellite cooling
system) ever built. The breakthrough is seen as a game-changer in the
design of affordable, advanced-technology flight systems, as it costs
up to ten thousand dollars a pound for a satellite to orbit the Earth.
Known as a microcryocooler, the new cooling system weighs approximately
11 ounces, three times lighter than its predecessor, and is expected to
have an operating life of at least ten years. (12/4)

NASA Advisory Council
Reorganizes for Greater Effectiveness (Source: NASA)
The NASA Advisory Council (NAC), an independent group of scientists and
aerospace experts who provide external guidance to NASA, will be
restructured in the coming months to more accurately reflect the
Agency’s structure and to improve its ability to deal with issues that
cut across the Agency. The restructuring process, resulting from a
recent internal review conducted under the direction of the NASA
Administrator, Charles Bolden, will begin immediately and will be fully
realized over the next several months. Click here.
(12/4)

Heat Shield for Orion
Spacecraft Arrives at KSC (Source: NASA)
NASA's Orion spacecraft is just about ready to turn up the heat. The
spacecraft's heat shield arrived at the agency's Kennedy Space Center
in Florida Wednesday night aboard the agency's Super Guppy aircraft.
The heat shield, the largest of its kind ever built, is to be unloaded
Thursday and is scheduled for installation on the Orion crew module in
March, in preparation for Orion's first flight test in September 2014.
(12/24)

Atlas V Scheduled for
Nighttime Launch on Thursday from California (Source:
Parabolic Arc)
Over the last few months, residents along the East Coast have been
treated to a series of spectacular nighttime rocket launches from
SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corporation. This week, it’s time for the
West Coast to shine. An Atlas V is scheduled to blast off from
Vandenberg Air Force Base on Thursday at 11:13 p.m. PST. The ULA rocket
will carry a classified National Reconnaissance Office payload
(NROL-39) into polar orbit. (12/4)

Visit National Parks on
Other Planets With These Fantastic Posters (Source: WIRED)
Come see the ice geysers of Enceladus, the searing volcanoes of Io, or
the secluded canyons of Mars! The wonders of the solar system have
never looked so wonderful. That’s the sense you get from looking at
this fantastic collection of planetary posters from astronomer and
artist Tyler Nordgren of the University of Redlands in California. The
posters manage to be futuristic and classic at the same time. Click here.

Editor's
Note: The posters describe a "U.N. Department of the
Exterior" as the authority for managing these parks. Not a bad idea!
Maybe they could take steps to protect Apollo and other historic sites
on the Moon, since the U.S. arguably cannot do it on their own based on
international treaties and sovereignity concerns. (12/4)

Cassini Captures Amazing
High-Res Animation of Saturn’s Mysterious Hexagon (Source:
WIRED)
NASA’s Cassini mission has captured an incredible high-resolution
animation of the psychedelic jet stream known as Saturn’s Northern
Hexagon. The strange polygonal object is a continent-sized six-sided
hurricane with 200 mph winds that spins around Saturn’s north pole.
Scientists are at a loss to explain exactly how the hexagon gets its
perfect shape but they suspect that it has to do with the way the jets
interact with Saturn’s gaseous atmosphere. Click here.
(12/4)

Thales Alenia Space Opens
New Plant at Quake-Damaged Site (Source: Space News)
Thales Alenia Space on Dec. 3 inaugurated a new Italian satellite
antenna and electronics component center not far from where the
predecessor facility was destroyed by an earthquake in April 2009. The
new facility, which will be fully operational by February, was financed
mainly by Thales Alenia Space, which spent around 65 million euros
($88.4 million) of its own funds cleaning up the destroyed site and
building the new 16,080-square-meter plant. (12/4)

Alien-Hunting Equation
Revamped for Mining Asteroids (Source: New Scientist)
The solar system is littered with millions of asteroids, but only a few
can be profitably mined for valuable metals and water using current
technology. That is the conclusion of a new analysis inspired by the
search for life on other planets. Recent years have seen two US
companies – Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries – established
with the intent of one day mining space rocks. NASA also has asteroid
ambitions, with a plan to drag one into lunar orbit for astronauts to
study.

But it is still unclear which rocks will make the best targets. To
tackle the problem, Martin Elvis adapted a tool used to study another
cosmic puzzle: the Drake equation, used in the hunt for alien life.
Dreamed up in 1961 by astronomer Frank Drake, the equation provides an
estimate of the number of detectable alien civilizations in the Milky
Way. You just need to plug in realistic guesses for the equation's
various factors. Click here.
(12/4)

Russia’s Future Space
Launchpad Violated Construction Laws (Source: RIA Novosti)
Russian prosecutors said Wednesday that a probe revealed environmental,
labor and building violations in the construction of what is slated to
become the country's main space launch site. The far-eastern Vostochny
cosmodrome, to take the bulk of Russian space launches from
Kazakhstan’s Baikonur, experienced the numerous violations due to the
work of construction companies, the Prosecutor General’s Office said
Wednesday, without elaborating.

Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin harshly criticized the
slow progress in the construction of Vostochny, scheduled to launch its
first carrier rocket in 2015. The cosmodrome is intended to host 45
percent of Russia’s space launches and all its manned flights as of the
year 2020, according to Roscosmos. Baikonur’s share of Russian space
launches is expected to fall from 65 percent to 11 percent, with the
remainder of launches taking place at the Plesetsk space center in
Russia’s north. (12/4)